England completed a series whitewash with the 42-run win the final of the three-match series at the SSC Ground in Colombo. Jonny Bairstow’s century on comeback helped England post 336 in their first innings. Sri Lanka, who were cruising at 173/1, collapsed to just 240 and conceded a 96-run lead.

They bounced back by reducing them from 4/39 but England’s middle and lower order pushed them to 230/10 in the second essay. A 102-run 6th wicket stand between Kusal Mendis (86) and Roshen Silva (65) kept Sri Lanka intact in the 327-run chase but were bowled out for 284 in the end.

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All the major stats and numbers that were recorded during England’s series whitewash:

1 – Ben Foakes is the 11th player to win the player of the series award in debut Test series. He is also the first England player and the first wicketkeeper to win the player of the series award in the debut series.

3 – This is only the 3rd Test series in Asia where a non-Asian team inflicted a whitewash. In 2002, Australia beat Pakistan 3-0 in a series played in Sri Lanka and UAE and also defeated Sri Lanka 3-0 in the 2004 series.

22 – Dilruwan Perera’s 22 wickets in this Test series are the 5th most by any player in a Test series in which their team was whitewashed. (3+ match series) The record is held by another Sri Lankan Muttiah Muralitharan with 28 wickets in the 2004 three-match home series against Australia.

58 – The 58-run stand between Suranga Lakmal and Malinda Pushpakumara is Sri Lanka’s first fifty-run stand for the 10th wicket in the 4th innings. Lasith Malinga and Muttiah Muralitharan added 46 runs in the 4th innings of 2007 Hobart Test against Australia.

88 – Angelo Mathews’ 88 in the 2nd Test is Sri Lanka’s highest individual score in this Test series. This is only the 2nd time where no Sri Lankan batsman scored a hundred in a home Test series of three and more game. In the 1999 three-match home Test series against Australia, the highest individual score by a Sri Lankan was only 78.

100 – Number of wickets that fell to the spinners in this Test series; the first Test series of four and fewer games with 100 wickets to spinners. The previous most number of wickets by spinners in a three-match Test series was only 79 during the 1998 series between New Zealand and Sri Lanka.